After successfully completing Dry February (no alcohol) and realising the enormous financial and health benefits, I went out this weekend and blew over $100 on drinks and to make it worse had a horrendous hangover the next day.

After successfully completing Dry February (no alcohol) and realising the enormous financial and health benefits, I went out this weekend and blew over $100 on drinks and to make it worse had a horrendous hangover the next day.

SO much regret.

All I can say is...wow, in a sad little voice.

Logged

I did it! I have a journal! A Lot Like ThisAnd hell yes, I am still moving confidently in the direction of my dreams...

After successfully completing Dry February (no alcohol) and realising the enormous financial and health benefits, I went out this weekend and blew over $100 on drinks and to make it worse had a horrendous hangover the next day.

I traveled overseas for work and forgot to cancel a dentist appointment. I was charged an extra $30 during my next appointment.

I should have negotiated to have it waived, since I had been a patient of the practice for 5 years. But they had just done me a favor (at my request, they extended my current visit to finish up a procedure, instead of making me return), so when I found out about the fee, I decided to cough it up.

I screwed up changing the oil on my wife's car on Saturday. While I was driving up the ramps, I started to roll backwards. I overcompensated with the throttle and instead of driving up the ramps, I flung the ramp that was under the driver's side front wheel under the car. The one under the passenger side stayed under the wheel. I had my floor jack out in the garage and in a couple of minutes, I was able to get the car jacked up and get the ramps out from under the car. At first, everything seemed to be ok. Nothing appeared bent, dented, or cracked. It wasn't until I took the car out for a test drive after finishing the oil change that I noticed the steering wheel wasn't centered when driving straight. So instead of saving $35 bucks doing an oil change and tire rotation myself, I spent $100 on a wheel alignment.

I was informed last minute that I should provide cupcakes for an event tomorrow at the school. I tried to do this on my bicycle. I got exercise and got to see the beautiful moon and only felt like I was going to be killed once or twice, but cupcakes in a tiny bike basket was a terrible plan. $15 lost to us, but I left them neatly on the sidewalk (encased in their plastic shells) near a housing project and/or where people live in their cars. Maybe someone who needs extra calories will be able to make good use of them? I'll try again tomorrow with a car.

Meant to buy plane tickets the other day, forgot, and then when I went back to do it, the price had gone up by $100 (still the lowest for that leg). Dammit. Flights from Chicago going west tend to be stupid (mostly on the way back, at least true for Portland and SLC).

Meant to buy plane tickets the other day, forgot, and then when I went back to do it, the price had gone up by $100 (still the lowest for that leg). Dammit. Flights from Chicago going west tend to be stupid (mostly on the way back, at least true for Portland and SLC).

Next time, delete your cookies and check prices again. This often gives different prices.I feel for you, because I typically don't remember to do this either.

Meant to buy plane tickets the other day, forgot, and then when I went back to do it, the price had gone up by $100 (still the lowest for that leg). Dammit. Flights from Chicago going west tend to be stupid (mostly on the way back, at least true for Portland and SLC).

Next time, delete your cookies and check prices again. This often gives different prices.I feel for you, because I typically don't remember to do this either.

I did that. Different devices, different IPs, Incognito mode, the whole enchilada. The price had simply changed across the board.

Just converted $300K CAD of portfolio that was in VUN [US stocks in CAD] to VTI [US stocks in USD] in my RRSP using Norbert's Gambit. That will save me ~$1620/yr CAD in fees and withholding taxes. The mistake was I've been paying that amount the the last few years by not doing it. Lesson learned. Better late than never.

So instead of saving $35 bucks doing an oil change and tire rotation myself, I spent $100 on a wheel alignment.

Be careful people.

Yowch! I hate when DIY goes wrong. But I bet that overall you've still saved huge amounts of money by doing your own auto maintenance.

True. It was a scary moment thought. A lot of auto work is pretty easy to do, but it can be awkward without a real lift. I'll be much more careful the next time I drive up my ramps.

I've always used a jack and jackstands, so happily have never had this experience. Sometimes I've used the sidewalk curb (drive one front wheel up on the curb-- gives just enough space to shimmy under and take care of business). Some vehicles required no lift at all (my '71 VW Beetle with it's oil drain so close to the bumper, my giant Dodge van, etc.)

So instead of saving $35 bucks doing an oil change and tire rotation myself, I spent $100 on a wheel alignment.

Be careful people.

Yowch! I hate when DIY goes wrong. But I bet that overall you've still saved huge amounts of money by doing your own auto maintenance.

True. It was a scary moment thought. A lot of auto work is pretty easy to do, but it can be awkward without a real lift. I'll be much more careful the next time I drive up my ramps.

I've always used a jack and jackstands, so happily have never had this experience. Sometimes I've used the sidewalk curb (drive one front wheel up on the curb-- gives just enough space to shimmy under and take care of business). Some vehicles required no lift at all (my '71 VW Beetle with it's oil drain so close to the bumper, my giant Dodge van, etc.)

Our Fits are a little too low to the ground to pull off driving on to a curb. I've never had issues driving up ramps before. I just had some bad luck that day.

Our garage floor is kind of busted up so I prefer to not be under the car when it is up on the stands. I try to just use the stands when I need access the brakes or rotate tires.

When I was buying my now-house (from the developer), I was biding my time and stretching things out as long as possible (construction wasn't set to occur for a year). One Friday, the sales people told me I really needed to sign the documents and put down my deposit, but they had been holding it for me for a few months already anyway, I thought they would continue to do so. Even when the assistant said to me "you really should sign today", I didn't take the hint.

The following Monday, all the available homes increased in price by $10k. Ouch.

- I have an annual subscription to match.com that occurred right before I left for deployment, I should have called and asked them to take the payment off and cancel service. I was too stressed at the time to deal with arguing, so I left it figuring I could cancel upon return and see if I could still get rid of it. Due to my idiocy, match.com charged me again, unexpectedly a month or so ago. Since I'm on deployment and hadn't been on land in months and no other subscriptions, I did not check my card until I had already accrued a $25 late fee and interest for two months. Now I have to try to argue two subscription payments and have tried to talk to the credit card company from overseas while signing myself up for the SCRA.

- I should have started using my TSP 4 years ago... yes, stupid I know. I had an IRA prior to joining the military, so I continued contributing to it. I didn't like the idea of not being able to access my money until 59.5, so I didn't do more than the max on my traditional IRA of 5,500. After getting mustachian in the past few months, I found out I could have contributed to both and just how good of a deal the TSP is. Again, due to being on deployment, I was unable to set up an account in time to contribute for 2016 in a lump sum although I still had time. The only way to contribute in a lump sum is to sign in with your account number, and the only way to get an account number is to sign up for the TSP and wait for a letter to be mailed to you. All my mail is currently being delivered to my parents and it would not arrive in time. I did however sign up for a 10% allotment to a Roth TSP that won't start until May 1st. I will adjust as necessary to max once I know how much I need in a traditional TSP to drop me to the 15% bracket.

Ugh, I still feel horrible just talking about these. If only I had put in the effort...

Not much room in there, had to remove the air intake to get to it. Finagled the old one out, but broke the electrical connection on the new one as I was tightening it in. -_- I'll try again this weekend.

You can't cash a post-dated cheque at my bank until the date in question. I have a client who pays me by cheque and often hands it to me before the end of the month, but dates it for the last day in the month. I have to be careful I don't fire it into the ATM too early or it gets kicked back to me by the bank.

Ok I didn't lose $10k like the previous poster. But I'm still embarrassed about f'ing up.

Paid 4 bills today and I accidentally forgot to future date 1 of them for May 12th.

So $473 cash went out of my bank account 28 days early..costing me $1.60 in interest not saved on a mortgage instead.

I know it's not much but it's still eating me up 10 hours later. Need to remind myself that it's a good thing I had access to almost $500 early and not be stretched.

You are allowed to post-date checks? And the vendor will honor a post-dated check? If we do it in the states, you can expect your check to be cashed just as if it had today's date on it.

Some education in this post is required.... it wasn't paid by check, but was paid by a special type of EFT.

Down here there's an online billing system run by the banks called BPAY ... started in 1997 and was set up by the 4 major banks in Australia.

The way it works is that each biller - insurance companies, utilities, government, but has been extended now to any corporate vendor, is allocated a unique 4-6 digit code which identifies them in the Payment System (we don't have original names in the banking system - the whole electronic funds transfer architecture connecting all financial institutions is simply called "The Payments System")

On your bill, you are personally allocated a unique Customer Reference Number code by the vendor which is listed on your bill and identifies you as the customer who is paying the bill.

You then simply login into your internet banking with your bank, type in the Biller Code and CRN and make your payment electronically - in the same manner as an EFT with SWIFT/acc number details.

The biller on the other end receives on their end a bulk credit from their bank 1-2 days later for all the people who paid bills on that day.

They also get a file listing all of the individual credits and CRNs so they can match and reconcile automatically with their receipting / billing system and identify you as having paid your particular bill.

This works better than EFT, because EFT credits to an account more than likely need to be manually matched off by a human accountant if reference details haven't been filled out optimally by the customer.

Of course, my fuck up was not scheduling payment to be deducted on the due date but rather paying it immediately.

Ok I didn't lose $10k like the previous poster. But I'm still embarrassed about f'ing up.

Paid 4 bills today and I accidentally forgot to future date 1 of them for May 12th.

So $473 cash went out of my bank account 28 days early..costing me $1.60 in interest not saved on a mortgage instead.

I know it's not much but it's still eating me up 10 hours later. Need to remind myself that it's a good thing I had access to almost $500 early and not be stretched.

You are allowed to post-date checks? And the vendor will honor a post-dated check? If we do it in the states, you can expect your check to be cashed just as if it had today's date on it.

Some education in this post is required.... it wasn't paid by check, but was paid by a special type of EFT.

Down here there's an online billing system run by the banks called BPAY ... started in 1997 and was set up by the 4 major banks in Australia.

The way it works is that each biller - insurance companies, utilities, government, but has been extended now to any corporate vendor, is allocated a unique 4-6 digit code which identifies them in the Payment System (we don't have original names in the banking system - the whole electronic funds transfer architecture connecting all financial institutions is simply called "The Payments System")

On your bill, you are personally allocated a unique Customer Reference Number code by the vendor which is listed on your bill and identifies you as the customer who is paying the bill.

You then simply login into your internet banking with your bank, type in the Biller Code and CRN and make your payment electronically - in the same manner as an EFT with SWIFT/acc number details.

The biller on the other end receives on their end a bulk credit from their bank 1-2 days later for all the people who paid bills on that day.

They also get a file listing all of the individual credits and CRNs so they can match and reconcile automatically with their receipting / billing system and identify you as having paid your particular bill.

This works better than EFT, because EFT credits to an account more than likely need to be manually matched off by a human accountant if reference details haven't been filled out optimally by the customer.

Of course, my fuck up was not scheduling payment to be deducted on the due date but rather paying it immediately.

Today in the grocery store. I seldomshop there because it is not en route. But know I needed an article only they have and went to buy a goid number of that article plus my other groceries. Some months ago this shop introduced a discount system and I did register my bankcard on their app. But not my cashback credit card, because the app didn't support credit cards. Now, months later, I shopped their for the first time since the discount system and paid with med cash back CC, as I shop all groceries elsewhere. When finished I remembered the discount, but it coulnd't be changed afterwards. I had not remebered to use the correct card. :-(

Now, months later, I shopped their for the first time since the discount system and paid with med cash back CC, as I shop all groceries elsewhere. When finished I remembered the discount, but it coulnd't be changed afterwards. I had not remebered to use the correct card. :-(

Oh, I hate when that happens! You're not the only one who makes that mistake!

Jaayse, at least you are fixing your mistakes and will be saving in future.

And ketchup, good luck on the second try on fixing the sensor! It reminds me of the time I installed a new SSD hard drive in a Macbook and accidentally broke the cables connecting the camera and Wifi. Although in some ways that experience might have helped me recently in replacing the display on my current Macbook. (Come to think of it, I wonder if I can take cables from the shattered display I recently replaced and put them in the old laptop to fix the wifi??? Hmmm.... this would make my kids pretty happy)

My most recent mistake has been ongoing for years. I neglected to open a savings account for my younger kids, so we just kept their cash lying around. It was because I kept meaning to find a credit union (better interest than Chase) but never found the time. We FINALLY opened up accounts for them last week. Not only could they have gotten interest, but the credit union gives each kid $10 on their birthday. I did not point out to my son that I owe him $80 plus compounded interest...

Our grocery store had packages of 4 chicken quarters for $2.10. Better yet, they were buy 1 get 2 free. DW and I were like, hmmm....let's think about it. Went back a few hours later to buy them and they were all gone. Still kicking myself.

I bought furniture for looks rather than for comfort. Now I'm going to be buying new furniture and putting the old on craigslist. Between what I get rid of and what I buy, it will probably end up costing me between $3k and $20k. I won't be able to recoup the cost of many of the more expensive pieces, so I'm debating whether to release them or just suck it up and keep them. As it is, I've probably sat on my couch 2 times in the past year because it's so darn uncomfortable.

I bought furniture for looks rather than for comfort. Now I'm going to be buying new furniture and putting the old on craigslist. Between what I get rid of and what I buy, it will probably end up costing me between $3k and $20k. I won't be able to recoup the cost of many of the more expensive pieces, so I'm debating whether to release them or just suck it up and keep them. As it is, I've probably sat on my couch 2 times in the past year because it's so darn uncomfortable.

If it is unsittable, you are right to sell it, even if you never get back the price. But next time, always try a sofa before buying. The most important aspect for a sofa or chair should be comfortable sitting.

I have old furniture that's pretty worn that I refuse to get rid of, because its finally comfortable! Haha, only half kidding there. But yes, I also bought for looks, but I would never do that again.

In fact, I like having worn looking furniture because I'm not always on pins & needles trying to keep it looking 'nice'. If my daughter wants to do dance moves on the back of the couch, or jump around doing play sword fighting, well that's gonna happen! And I don't give a single thought to "oh, don't mess up the furniture".

Not caring about that type of stuff has let me form closer bonds with my daughter and made all of us more comfortable in our own home.

I bought furniture for looks rather than for comfort. Now I'm going to be buying new furniture and putting the old on craigslist. Between what I get rid of and what I buy, it will probably end up costing me between $3k and $20k. I won't be able to recoup the cost of many of the more expensive pieces, so I'm debating whether to release them or just suck it up and keep them. As it is, I've probably sat on my couch 2 times in the past year because it's so darn uncomfortable.

If it is unsittable, you are right to sell it, even if you never get back the price. But next time, always try a sofa before buying. The most important aspect for a sofa or chair should be comfortable sitting.

Not just sitting.

I picked my couch based on what would be comfy to nap - I mean, um, read - on. Big, soft, flat arms FTW.

Last time I went furniture shopping with a friend, she was primly sitting on couches like she was in church. Nooo, you have to tip yourself into it from two steps away, like you do at home.

$243 speeding fine. I never speed! But it was the morning of my wedding, and i was driving on a multi lane deserted highway at 5am, managed to go 13km over the limit at some point (in front of a speed camera obvs). Grrr, so angry with myself- that's almost a weeks worth of savings wasted because of my distraction / stupidity!!'

I packed a "lunch" for myself at work to bring to the airport so I wouldn't buy airport food. And I forgot it.

On top of that, the only UBER in the area was an "UBER black", so I rolled into the terminal in a cadillac escalade, paying 2.5X for the ride compared to a normal uber.

I ought to just find some boxing gloves on craigslist for when you guys come around to face-punch me.

That's funny! Normal people would be all 'yeah, got to ride in an Escalade'. MMMers are embarrassed to ride in one.

Similarly I would be pretty embarrassed to show up to work in a new car. Maybe because everyone else here doesn't make very much and the car would be more than their entire year's pay. There are a few expensive trucks though, people are crazy about their trucks in the rural south. But no one drives any nice sports cars or luxury cars.

Got TWO photo radar tickets in the first week of April (first time in years, but man was I pissed off). $149 and $120... saw the flash on the one day, but had already been nabbed two days before, so the second one was quite the unhappy surprise.

It's even more embarrassing because I drive this road every.single.day, and have for years. I now know where the 90 km/h zone starts... good grief. Facepalm.

Doing well lately. No mistakes in March that I remember. In April I let about $5 worth of food go bad. Also I missed out on some deals because of running out of printer ink (hard to quantify this one, because similar deals will come again later). So far in May all I have done is forget to hand over a .55 coupon. I am at about $206 for the year.

Great job for March and April, MrsWolfeRN! I forgot a $1 coupon yesterday, but I managed to catch myself and fix it at the customer service counter.

Sorry about the tickets, 11ducks and Step37. :(

I am going to come clean about the biggest mistake that I have been ignoring. Back in 2015, I was working on the website of a very picky client. He and his marketing director changed their minds constantly on design, wanted new features, could not figure out how to upload new data and wanted me to do it for them, wanted last minute emergency changes on weekends and holidays, etc. As a result, we ended up going $11K over budget despite warnings. Of course they were shocked when they got the bill in early 2016, and said they wanted to dispute it, but needed time to go through it as they were just entering their busy season. At that time, I was quitting work because I had to care for my father (who eventually died.)

However, I have not pursued the matter since and every time I think of it I get stressed out. Don't know if I will ever get paid.

I am going to come clean about the biggest mistake that I have been ignoring. Back in 2015, I was working on the website of a very picky client. He and his marketing director changed their minds constantly on design, wanted new features, could not figure out how to upload new data and wanted me to do it for them, wanted last minute emergency changes on weekends and holidays, etc. As a result, we ended up going $11K over budget despite warnings. Of course they were shocked when they got the bill in early 2016, and said they wanted to dispute it, but needed time to go through it as they were just entering their busy season. At that time, I was quitting work because I had to care for my father (who eventually died.)

However, I have not pursued the matter since and every time I think of it I get stressed out. Don't know if I will ever get paid.

That's a difficult situation.

Do you get stressed at the thought of never getting paid, or stressed at the thought of starting the awkward process of trying to recoup your money?

You're well within your rights pursue this. Send another invoice, then escalate it from there.

They owe you the money. If you are willing to negotiate on the price then you might get paid quicker, but I don't think you should shy away from pursuing it.

Didn't read the leaflet at the grocery store fast enough. So my boyfriend paid the groceries before I detected a whole lot of coupons in the leaflet. Fortunately, they are still valid next week, but to use them two weeks in a row would have been better.

I am going to come clean about the biggest mistake that I have been ignoring. Back in 2015, I was working on the website of a very picky client. He and his marketing director changed their minds constantly on design, wanted new features, could not figure out how to upload new data and wanted me to do it for them, wanted last minute emergency changes on weekends and holidays, etc. As a result, we ended up going $11K over budget despite warnings. Of course they were shocked when they got the bill in early 2016, and said they wanted to dispute it, but needed time to go through it as they were just entering their busy season. At that time, I was quitting work because I had to care for my father (who eventually died.)

However, I have not pursued the matter since and every time I think of it I get stressed out. Don't know if I will ever get paid.

That's a difficult situation.

Do you get stressed at the thought of never getting paid, or stressed at the thought of starting the awkward process of trying to recoup your money?

You're well within your rights pursue this. Send another invoice, then escalate it from there.

They owe you the money. If you are willing to negotiate on the price then you might get paid quicker, but I don't think you should shy away from pursuing it.

Couldn't have said it better, mpgh! Poundwise, if you need some ideas about how to approach them/wording an email, I'm sure this community would be pleased to offer some. I think you'll feel a sense of relief in taking the first step. I am guilty of putting off unpleasant and uncomfortable tasks as well, so I completely understand your predicament.

I am going to come clean about the biggest mistake that I have been ignoring. Back in 2015, I was working on the website of a very picky client. He and his marketing director changed their minds constantly on design, wanted new features, could not figure out how to upload new data and wanted me to do it for them, wanted last minute emergency changes on weekends and holidays, etc. As a result, we ended up going $11K over budget despite warnings. Of course they were shocked when they got the bill in early 2016, and said they wanted to dispute it, but needed time to go through it as they were just entering their busy season. At that time, I was quitting work because I had to care for my father (who eventually died.)

However, I have not pursued the matter since and every time I think of it I get stressed out. Don't know if I will ever get paid.

I have been in that exact situation as well. Luckily it wasn't my own wallet, but my employer's. In the end I was able to invoice all the hours they had called me in extra to be present in meetings here and there. But not all extra development hours. One solution would have been to inform them much earlier that the budget was to get busted.

For next time:My husband told me what he does with this kind of customers. When they ask you to do extra work, you send a confirming email that you will do the extra work for x amount. If they don't fight that email within a week, this will will be a valid base for an invoice. This way you don't need to make them sign things before doing the change and you don't need to make a big flight afterwards.

Thank you so much, everyone. I actually do have a number of emails where the client says he will pay for X, Y, and Z so at least I should invoice those... though unfortunately not for all work. We do have a contract so I have to go through all our hundreds of emails from a 6 month period and figure out the point at which the contract was filled. One issue is that I was under such pressure to produce rapid results that I did not have time to think most of the time.

The $11K is AFTER discounts and many freebies. If I charged for every little thing it would have been $14K.

The client can be very in your face... apparently he called my colleague and swore and screamed at him when he got our invoices. I shouldn't be afraid, but I need time to go through my files so that I have my facts straight... it will take many hours and of course I have been putting it off. Yeah, gotta take care of it...

Didn't read the leaflet at the grocery store fast enough. So my boyfriend paid the groceries before I detected a whole lot of coupons in the leaflet. Fortunately, they are still valid next week, but to use them two weeks in a row would have been better.

At Wegmans, my mother will take up the coupons and her receipt to the service counter and have them refund the coupons that she forgot to use. Will your grocery store do that?